Anti-American Art

I'm not sure when this one is from, but I'm guessing ca. Korean War. A Chinese People's Liberation Army hero holds a bayonetted rifle; strung on the bayonet are a Japanese flag, a Kuomintang (Chinese nationalist) flag, and a US helmet, signifying China's serial victories. It's convenient for everybody to "forget" that the Korean war was really a war between the United States and China acted out on the stage of Korea. It's also convenient to forget that nobody actually "won" that war.

Anti-American Art

Here's an early 1970s poster from OSPAAL, the Cuba-based Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The caption: "US IMPERIALIST TROOPS, GET OUT OF SOUTH KOREA AT ONCE!"

This is certainly not particularly subtle propaganda: as the US soldier falls backward, kicked off the globe by an armed Korean civilian, he even drops his UN olive branch. The requisite multi-national solidarity contingent looks on, bayonets fixed.

I'm fascinated by this kind of art, and will be posting examples of it here from time to time. Hopefully I'll find something meaningful to say about it. This kind of fantasy socialist realism is sort of the equivalent to sword & sorcery's Frank Frazetta, for the anti-imperialist set, of course.